Method and apparatus for arranging face-to-face meetings

ABSTRACT

Individuals, couples, and families subscribe to a community for facilitating the arrangement of their outings and social meetings. Subscribers fill in wish-lists to specify their level of interest in specific attractions, in getting together with specific other subscribers, and in arranging their specific schedules for outings. An encounter generator processes the subscriber wish-lists to identify matches of subscribers who are interested in the same attraction, who favor each other&#39;s company, and who are free at the same time. The system notifies the matched subscribers, optionally offering ticketing and/or reservation assistance. Partial matches are optionally referred to the respective subscribers for negotiating the unmatched schedule or attraction. The system is adaptable to serve singles who wish to identify and get to know a prospective mate through mutual visits to attractions, as well as individuals, couples, and families who want to go out with their existing friends or make new friends.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/344,816,entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ARRANGING SOCIAL MEETINGS”, filed onFeb. 1, 2006 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,386; which in turn claims thebenefits of provisional application No. 60/653,664, entitled “METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR ARRANGING SOCIAL ENCOUNTERS”, filed on Feb. 17, 2005, andis a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/841,268, U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,398, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FORMANAGING SOCIAL GAMES” filed on May 7, 2004, which in turn claims thebenefits of provisional application No. 60/496,242, filed Aug. 15, 2003,and provisional application No. 60/479,007, filed Jun. 15, 2003. Theparent application Ser. No. 11/344,816 above incorporates by referencepatent application Ser. No. 11/345,084 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUSFOR LEISURE & ENTERTAINMENT MERCHANDISING” and filed on Feb. 1, 2006.All above documents are incorporated by reference in their entirety asif fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to computerized methods and systems forfacilitating face-to-face social meetings, and, in particular, to suchmethods and systems operating over public data networks.

2. Description of Related Art

An outing blends an urge to visit an attraction with a social motive:either one wishes to go to a café, movie, or show and seeks a companion,or one wants to meet a friend and selects a café, movie, or show to goto. Some want to go out with existing friends, while others go out tomake new friends or meet and get to know a soul mate.

The social motive is often the engine that drives outings—or theobstacle that inhibits them. Nurturing the social motive, however, isnontrivial. Seeking a soul mate or making new friends requiresidentifying eligible prospects and approaching strangers, which ischallenging for many. Developing affection or friendship following afirst meeting is also nontrivial. But even within established and solidfriendships among individuals, couples, or families, arranging socialmeetings is a demanding task, requiring initiative, exchange ofinformation, balancing preferences and priorities, negotiating theparticulars, and coordinating the execution. While some people areproactive and successful in driving and arranging social meetings, manyothers have difficulties initiating outings and meetings, even thoughthey still have a strong need for such activities.

Social meetings can take place at commercial attractions such as diningand drinking places, clubs, movie and show theatres, concert halls,museums, lectures, sports arenas, shopping malls, amusement parks, zoos,resorts, domestic and overseas tours, etc. Social meetings can also takeplace in noncommercial settings such as a private party, during a walkin a park, or when participating in a public lecture, demonstration, orpolitical gathering.

Although the Internet and the media provide ample information withrespect to where one can go and what one can do, the motivatedindividual, couple or family still has the burden of arranging with whomto meet, for what event, and when. While the convenience aspect of“when” can benefit from some recent innovations in calendar-coordination(see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,085,166 and 6,505,167B1; and USpatent application publication 2005/0038690A1), the socially-criticalaspects of with whom to go out and for what event, have so far beenoverlooked, except for the related parent U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/841,268. There is thus an unfulfilled need for methods andsystems to assist socially-motivated persons in initiating andcoordinating their social meetings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention offers a computer-assisted solution forfacilitating the arrangement of social meetings. Users of the presentinvention enter their wish-lists, which specify and prioritize any orall of what attractions they want to visit, with whom they prefer to goout, and what is their preferred schedule for outings. A computerizedencounter generator then scans the wish-lists for generating encounters.An encounter determines an ensemble of two or more users, an assignedattraction and a schedule for visiting that attraction. The ensemblemembers are then presented with the encounter details. In case ofcommercial attractions, the encounter generator optionally facilitatesbooking, i.e. reservation and/or ticketing.

The audiences for the present invention are categorized by theirultimate goal in seeking social meetings:

-   -   Mate seeker: a single who wishes to meet others in order to        identify, approach and develop mutual affection with a soul mate        of a selected gender.    -   Friend seeker: an individual, couple or family who wishes to get        acquainted with others in order to make friends; for example,        people who have relocated to another city may look for new        friends. Prospective friends can be individuals from both sexes,        established couples, or families.    -   Entertainment seeker: an individual, couple or family who wishes        to go out for having good time with others, from existing        friends or compatible strangers.

Entertainment seekers can be further characterized by their instantmotivation, into those who have an urge to go out at a specific timewhile being less selective with respect to the companion and attractionspecifics; those who wish to go out with a preferred companion and aretolerant regarding the attraction; and those who wish to attend aspecific attraction and seek a companion.

It will be noted that the classification above is notmutually-exclusive: one may attend a singles party with the goals ofmaking friends from both sexes, seeking a soul mate of the opposite sex,having good time with others, and identifying a companion for a journey;a couple relocating to another town may be invited to join and get toknow an established company of friends who go out for a theater show; afamily inviting two other families for a weekend may initiate a newfriendship between those two other families that did not know each otherbefore. Sometimes the additional effect is desirable, such as whenmaking new friends while hoping to meet a soul mate among them, and inother cases such effects are unexpected side-effects.

DEFINITIONS

The terms “subscriber”, “participant”, “member” and “user” hereininterchangeably denote an individual person, an established couple, or afamily, registering to participate in encounters according to thepresent invention, for any of the motivations described above, i.e.seeking a mate, friends, or entertainment. A person may register as morethan one participant; for instance, one may register as an individualseeking new partners for hiking, as a member of a couple that seeks thecompany of other couples for going out to movies, and as a member of afamily that seeks the company of other families for a journey. The term“couple” herein relates to either a married couple or two mates,participating as a unit in encounters. The term “family” herein relatesto one or two parents together with at least one child participating asa unit in encounters. A subscriber that is a couple or family willregister as one subscriber having a single wish-list agreed uponinternally.

The term “community” herein relates to all subscribers registered with acertain implementation of the present invention. A community may behomogenous, for example the students of a certain college or a group ofsingles aged 30-40 seeking a mate; or it can be heterogeneous, open tovarious types of subscribers and goals—for example singles, couples andfamilies of all ages and all interests.

The term “forum” herein denotes a subset of a community that isoptionally formed to narrow the focus of a subscriber when scoring othersubscribers, as well as for restricting the access of other subscribersto that subscriber. A “closed forum” is a relatively-homogenous group ofsubscribers that can be mutually selected for meetings. A closed forumcan be the entire community, for example in a relative-small communityof college students, or be a homogeneous community subset selected onthe basis of mutual compatibility of the forum's members, taking intoaccount member type (individual, couple or family), age, goals,interests, geographic location, etc. A closed forum can also be made upof an existing company of friends, who wish to use an embodiment of thepresent invention for arranging meetings within their company. In somecases, especially for mate seekers and friend seekers, a forum can bemade intentionally compact to facilitate the interaction among itsmembers. A “subscriber's circle” or “circle” is a specific type of forumthat is a personal forum of a certain subscriber; thus, a circleconsists of that certain subscriber along with other subscribers thatare compatible with and are made accessible to that subscriber on amutual basis; for example, a subscriber and ten friends he hasidentified within the community or has motivated them to join thecommunity; since friendship is not transitive (i.e. a friend-of-a-friendis not necessarily a friend), circles will often not coincide (i.e. notform a closed forum), unless a company of mutual friends selects toestablish a closed forum. Another example for a circle is whenfriend-seeking subscribers who initially do not know each other arematched by a community leader according to predefined criteria, such asage, education and residence addresses; Peter who is 30-year old, forexample, can be matched with Jim aged 25 and John aged 35, but Jim andJohn cannot be matched with each other since their age difference is toohigh; thus, under an embodiment that supports circles, a communityorganizer for friend seekers can assign Jim and John to the circle ofPeter, while both are excluded from the circle of each other. In thecase of mate seekers, a circle will typically consist of the subscriberalong with members of the selected gender. A forum can be updated byadding or deleting members; this may occur because of memberinitiatives, or by the initiative of a community or forum leader wishingto refresh membership, especially in case of mate seekers and friendseekers.

The term “attraction” herein denotes a specification of the content ofand/or the place, and usually also the time or times of operation, for aface-to-face social meeting. An attraction can be the reason for themeeting, or just a nucleus around which a meeting is crystallized.Non-limiting examples for an attraction are: a café, restaurant, pub orbar; a theater, movie, zoo, amusement park, concert hall, opera,exhibition, fair, baseball match, shopping mall, gym, bookstore; adomestic or international tour; a lecture, party, political gathering;singles workshop; a church, synagogue, or mosque; or a gathering atone's home for a party or chat. Attractions can be defined in variousdegrees of specificity; for example: a restaurant, an Italianrestaurant, or a specific Italian restaurant; a movie, a comedy, aspecific comedy, or a specific comedy at a specific movie theater. Thedegree of specificity depends on the motivation for and circumstances ofthe meeting, and may leave the particulars to be negotiated anddecided-upon among the matched parties. Sometimes two or moreattractions can be appended to become another attraction; for example,it may become customary to follow a visit to a movie by a visit to acafé thus making the combination of movie+café an attraction by itself.The term “commercial attraction” relates to an attraction offered forprofit by a business to the general public; for example, all attractionslisted above that require or potentially require payment to a commercialentity are considered commercial attractions; thus, even a visit to abookstore by the initiative of the bookstore's owner is considered acommercial attraction since it is driven by the owner's motive togenerate revenues.

With reference to commercial attractions, the term “attraction operator”relates to a business that operates an attraction, such as a movietheater, a café, a restaurant or a zoo; the term “attraction agency”relates to a reseller of tickets and/or a facilitator of reservations,such as an Internet or mobile ticket booth or travel agent; the term“attraction provider” covers both an attraction operator and attractionagency.

The term “ensemble” herein denotes two or more subscribers that areselected to meet for visiting or participating in an attraction.

The term “schedule” relates to a specific date and time for visiting anattraction. Sometimes a schedule is implicit in the attraction (forexample, in case of a unique concert); or it can be specified next to anattraction definition (for example, if a subscriber seeks to go out tothe movie “Harry Potter” on the coming Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.); or itcan be specified separately, irrespective of the attraction specifics,for expressing the time preferences of a subscriber for going out.

The term “encounter” herein denotes a social meeting arranged by anembodiment of the present invention. Typically, an encounter defines acombination of an ensemble, schedule and attraction. Thus, an encountercan be formed of two individuals that are meeting tonight for a moviefollowed by a visit to a café, three couples meeting at the opera onTuesday, or four families joining for a two-week journey to Alaska inJuly. While defining an ensemble is mandatory for an encounter, theschedule, attraction or particulars thereof can, in some embodiments orinstances, be predefined or left to be decided upon among the ensemble'smembers.

The following terms relate to how subscribers express their preferencesand constraints with respect to encounters. The term “score” or“scoring” herein relates to a subscriber expressing his, her or theirrelative level of interest for another subscriber. The term “rank” or“ranking” herein relates to a subscriber expressing his, her or theirrelative level of interest for an attraction. The term “timing” relatesto a subscriber specifying schedule preferences, i.e. preferences fordates and/or hours for a meeting. The term “policy” herein relates to asubscriber specifying how often he, she or they wish to go out, and/orthe priority among selecting an attraction, partners and schedule; forinstance, one's policy may specify going out twice a week and have firstpriority for the partner selection, second priority for convenientschedule and third priority for the attraction specifics. The term“miscellaneous preference” herein relates to a subscriber expressingconstraints and priorities with respect to attraction details that arenot covered by the attraction specifications, and are optionally takeninto account to fine-tune the encounter specifics; for example, if theattraction is specified just as restaurant, the subscriber may add apreference of Italian restaurant, a specific Italian restaurant, or acorner table; similarly, for an attraction plainly specified as a movie,the subscriber may specify a preference for a comedy, a certain comedy,or preferred seats.

The term “personal wish-list” or “wish-list” herein denotes an inputfrom a subscriber that is entered into an embodiment of the presentinvention, for identifying, i.e. introducing and/or updating, thesubscriber's preferences and/or constraints with respect to meetings. Awish-list introduces or updates any combination or sub-combination (i.e.combination of a subset) of scoring subscribers, ranking attractions,specifying timing, defining a policy, or expressing miscellaneouspreferences. Typically, the personal wish-list addresses with whom thesubscriber prefers to meet, what attractions are most desirable, whatschedule is acceptable or preferred, how often the subscriber wants togo out, how to prioritize among partners, attraction and schedule, andwhat other miscellaneous preferences are. However, a wish-list may omitsome of these details, to be predefined by a community doctrine ornegotiated among ensemble members. The wish-list is typically dynamic,changing with experience, mood, new personal constraints, newacquaintances and new attraction offers. Preferably, parts of thewish-list, and especially the scores, are kept secret, since theyinclude sensitive personal preferences regarding others.

The term “doctrine & rules” or “doctrine” herein relates to a specificvariation of operational rules and algorithms that affect the operationof the present invention. The doctrine is adapted to specific goals,audience, culture and taste of the targeted participants.

The term “booking” herein related to reservation and/or ticketing for anattraction.

The General Process

The process of arranging social meetings in accordance to the presentinvention is executed by a system generating encounter opportunities inresponse to the wish-lists received from subscribers. The system aims atmatching alike wishes while balancing conflicting priorities. Optionalpreparatory and conclusive steps are dependent on the participants'goal. The following steps relate to a generalized process, and requiretweaking for mate seekers, friend seekers and entertainment seekers:

-   -   Registration: individuals, couples or families need to register        with a community of users of the present invention in order to        become subscribers. In some communities, one may have multiple        registrations, for example register as an individual, a member        of a couple and a member of a family. In other communities, one        may be registered by default, e.g. by belonging to a student        association or another group that has been formed for another        reason and joins as a community for using an embodiment of the        present invention.    -   Forum derivation: this step is optional and can be useful if the        community is too large or too heterogeneous for effective        operation. In some embodiments it is materialized by identifying        a circle for each subscriber.    -   Introductory encounter(s): in case of mate seekers and friend        seekers who are initially-unfamiliar with each other, one or        more optional introductory meetings acquaint participants with        each other.    -   Primary encounters: multiple encounters are arranged in response        to the dynamic wish-lists of the subscribers.    -   Conclusion: in some embodiments of the present invention for        mate seekers and friend seekers, after a certain amount of        primary encounters, a participant has either reached the sought        goal or should better look for another chance in another forum.        Summary of Encounter Generation

The present invention presents a method, apparatus and system forutilizing a computer for arranging social meetings at attractions for acommunity of subscribers. Subscribers can be individuals, couples orfamilies, seeking entertainment, new friends and/or a soul mate.Attractions can be commercial or non-commercial.

An encounter generator communicates, for example through the Internet ora cellular network, with subscriber terminals, for example personalcomputers or cellular phones, for receiving a wish-list from eachparticipating subscriber from a plurality of subscribers from thecommunity. The plurality can be smaller than the community, because notall community subscribers need to generate or receive communication inevery operation session; also, the plurality can be intentionallylimited, in a certain operation, to the subscribers who belong to acertain forum within the community and select to participate in acurrent session of operation. The presentation of the attractions to asubscriber is optionally and preferably limited to only attractions thata relevant to that subscriber, filtered by geography, age and interestsexpressed by the subscriber. The wish-list of each participatingsubscriber identifies his/her/their preferences for an encounter,expressed as a combination or sub-combination of all or a subset of:scoring the level of interest of the participating subscriber formeeting other relevant subscribers from the community (the relevantsubscribers being, for example, those of the selected gender belongingto a forum of the participating subscriber who seeks a soul mate, orthose who belong to the subscriber's circle), ranking the level ofinterest of the participating subscriber for attractions of interestfrom the offered attractions, and timing the preferred schedules of theparticipating subscriber for having encounters. While often thewish-list includes all three of scoring, ranking and timing, in somecases, a factor may be missing, because it is determined by default, oris not taken into account during encounter generation, or is left to benegotiated among matched parties. Different subscribers may havedifferent parts of their wish-lists missing or incomplete.

The encounter generator then processes the current wish-lists forgenerating encounters by seeking matches among the scores, ranks andtimings of the participating subscribers. Based on such matches, anencounter is generated by picking an ensemble of (at least two)subscribers whose wish-lists match, assigning an attraction that waspositively ranked by the ensemble's members, and selecting a schedulethat satisfies the timing preferences of the ensemble's members. Theencounter generator then preferably repeats the encounter generationprocess for other encounters for other ensembles.

Picking an ensemble is often made by taking into account, at the highestpriority, the mutual scoring of the subscribers. However, in someembodiments or instances, depending on the policies in effect, pickingcan be determined primarily in accordance to attraction ranking orschedule timing preferences rather than subscriber scoring. This mayhappen, for example, when the policy of a forum or of individuals aimsat giving higher priority to where one goes or when, over with whom.Thus, A and B may be picked by their wish-lists as an ensemble becauseboth want very much to visit a certain concert, and attending thatconcert is more important to them (according to their policies) than thefact that other subscribers are scored higher by each one of them.Accordingly, picking an ensemble in response to the wish-lists of theplurality can be dominated by the various ingredients of the wish-list.It will be also noted that even if scoring is missing in some or allsubscribers' wish-lists, subscribers can still be matched and picked bytheir common attraction preferences (i.e. by their common ranking).

While picking an ensemble in response to the wish-lists of theparticipating subscribers from the plurality is mandatory for anencounter, any of the other encounter ingredients, i.e. assigning anattraction and selecting a schedule, can in some embodiments orinstances be determined arbitrarily by the encounter generator orrequire additional input from the ensemble's members, either because themissing factor is being decided by predefined rules (for example, theplurality of subscribers is from a forum that meets every Tuesdayevening, or the attraction is predefined as visiting the gym, or arestaurant is arbitrarily selected by the encounter generator accordingto seats availability), or because data is missing in the respectivewish-lists or fails to match, and is then left to be negotiated amongthe ensemble members, and then preferably reported back to the encountergenerator for completing the encounter toward booking. Also, each of theacts of picking an ensemble, assigning an attraction and selecting aschedule, can include offering more than one choice by the encountergenerator (for exampling, choosing between two movies that have beenpositively ranked by all ensemble members, or deciding between twomovies where the ensemble members initially failed to agree on even one)and getting feedback from the subscribers for finalizing that act. Aftera fully- or partially-complete encounter is generated, the encountergenerator communicates with the terminals of the ensemble's subscribersand presents the encounter details.

In case of commercial attractions, the encounter generator preferablycommunicates with one or more commercial attraction servers (forexample, of attraction operators such as a movie theater chain, orattraction agencies such as a ticket reseller) for receiving andupdating the attraction offers. In this case, after an encounter hasbeen assigned, the encounter generator preferably facilitatescommunication between the ensemble's subscribers and the respectiveattraction servers, for completing booking, i.e. reservations and/orticketing; this is done by either offering the subscriber an option tomake the booking through a communication session with the encountergenerator, or by providing a link that refers the subscriber to therespective attraction server for a direct buyer-seller transaction. Insome embodiments, the attraction server and the encounter generator areintegrated within the same physical server or computer system, and thenthe functionalities described above are executing between differentlogical processes running within the same computing environment.

In some embodiments, the wish-list of subscribers includes a policy thatindicates how often the subscriber wants to go out (e.g. twice a week),and/or what is the priority among who, where and when the subscriberwants to meet (i.e. the priority for taking into account scoring,ranking and timing, when picking an ensemble). The encounter generatorpreferably takes such policies into account for generating encounters.

A special case of interest is when employing the method, apparatus andsystem of the present invention for running dating encounters forsingles, or for arranging new acquaintances for individuals who wish tomake new friends. In this case, participants may feel embarrassed orunsafe in having a one-on-one meeting with a stranger, and would feelmore comfortable in having initial meetings in a group setting, and moveto couple meetings only after having developed interest and confidencein others during group meetings. The personal wish-list's scoring thenincludes not only the level of interest in other subscribers, but alsoan indication whether the present subscriber agrees to meet each ofhis/her scored subscribers in a couple setting. The encountergenerator's processor is then programmed to pick an ensemble of twosubscribers for a couple encounter only if both respective participantshave approved each other for a couple encounter; otherwise, theprocessor ensures that the picked ensemble includes at least threesubscribers for a group setting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be understood and appreciated more fully fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with thedrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram describing the general architectureof a system according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram zooming into the encountergenerator of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram demonstrating the content of asubscriber record.

FIGS. 4A-E are tables demonstrating exemplary contents of subscribers'wish-lists.

FIG. 5 is a simplified flowchart describing the operation of a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram summarizing leadership types invarious preferred embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram summarizing forum derivationmethods in various preferred embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary division of a community toforums.

FIG. 8A is an illustration of an exemplary division of a community tocircles.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram summarizing subscriber introductionmethods in various preferred embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a simplified flowchart of the operation of a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 11A-B are tables demonstrating an exemplary scoring method.

FIGS. 12A-B are tables demonstrating an exemplary timing method.

FIGS. 13A-B are tables demonstrating an exemplary ranking method.

FIG. 14A is an exemplary table of scoring, timing and rankingconsolidated into a single table.

FIG. 14B is an exemplary table demonstrating the policy concept and howit affects encounter selection.

FIG. 15 is a simplified block diagram describing a preferred embodimentof the present invention wherein the invented functionalities are spreadover three server families.

FIG. 16 is a simplified block diagram describing a preferred embodimentof the present invention wherein the invented functionalities are addedto an attraction agency server.

FIG. 17 is a simplified block diagram describing a variation of theembodiment of FIG. 15 adapted for dating.

FIG. 18 is a simplified flowchart of the operation of the embodiment ofFIG. 17.

FIGS. 19A-C are simplified flowcharts describing alternative doctrinesfor the operation of the embodiment of FIG. 17.

FIG. 20 is a simplified flowchart describing a generalized mode ofoperation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention that offerscommercial attractions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a parthereof, and within which are shown by way of illustration specificembodiments by which the invention may be practiced. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

OVERVIEW

Reference is made to FIG. 1, which describes a general exemplarypreferred embodiment 100 of a system constructed in accordance to thepresent invention. Encounter generator 110 is the heart of the system;it is a computer that includes subscriber wish-lists and attractionoffers, processing means to generate encounters in response to thewish-lists, and communication interfaces. The term “computer” hereindenotes any data storage and processing device or system, including, butnot limited to, personal computers (PCs), data networks, Internetservers and servers of cellular telephony. Subscriber terminals 120include personal terminals 124 and/or public terminals 125. A personalterminal 124 is a device that is personal to a subscriber for allowingdata entry into and/or data reception from encounter generator 110.Examples of personal terminal 124 include, but are not limited to,cellular telephones with Internet and/or Short Messaging Service (SMS)or Dual Tone Modulation Frequency (DTMF) capability, land telephones,video-phones, Internet-enabled set-top-box, one-way and two-way pagers,and personal computers of all types and sizes connectable to theInternet, to a cellular telephony network, to a cellular wireless datanetwork, or to a local wireless network using short-range IR or RFcommunication. A public terminal 125 is any input and/or output deviceaccessible to more than one subscriber and allowing data entry intoand/or data reception from encounter generator 110. Non-limitingexamples include a public computer allowing a subscriber to communicatewith encounter generator 110 via the Internet, a local network or acellular network, by identifying himself or herself by username andpassword (or an alternative user authentication means); a video screen;a video projector; a printer printing encounter details; or a publicaddress system used to announce encounters within a party. It will beappreciated that in some embodiments a subscriber may use variouscommunication options, for example enter his/her personal record via ahome PC 124 connected to the Internet, update his/her wish-list bysending an SMS or DTMF message from cellular telephone 124 to encountergenerator 110, and read the details of his/her next encounter on a largevideo screen 125 within a party site. An optional leader terminal 130 isused by a forum or community leader in embodiments where a human isinvolved in deriving forums from a community or in assigning encounters.Optionally, one or more commercial attraction provider servers 123, eachbeing either a server 123P of an attractions operator (e.g. a movietheater or a café or a server 123P of an attraction agency (e.g. aticket or travel agency), are preferably linked to encounter generator110 in order to offer commercial attractions to the subscribers, on aregular or promotional basis, and preferably also for checkingattraction availability and/or arranging booking. In smallerimplementations, an attraction server 123 can be reduced to anattraction operator terminal 123 that serves a smaller attractionoperator for feeding attraction offers into attraction database 150(FIG. 2). Communication links 101, 103 and 105 are network-based ordirect data links to connect encounter generator 110 to the subscriberterminals 120, leader terminal 130, and commercial attraction providerservers 123, respectively.

Reference is now made to FIG. 2, which zooms into encounter generator110 of FIG. 1. A processor 160 includes a computer CPU (centralprocessing unit) running an encounter program 165 which generatesencounters by assigning attractions from an attraction database 150 tosubscribers from a subscriber database 140, according to subscriberwish-lists 145 included in subscriber's records 141 and to a selecteddoctrine and rules 171. Processor 160 preferably includes a randomnumber generator 160R for including a random factor in the selection ofencounter participants and/or attractions, which facilitates selectionsof attractions and participants and protects the privacy of subscribersby masking their wish-lists; thus, from an encounter assigned to asubscriber one cannot determine with certainty whether the associatedattraction or partner were preferred in that subscriber's wish-list orjust selected randomly by processor 160 using random number generator160R. Such privacy is especially important during the process of seekinga mate or friends, or when preferring the company of a certain friend tothat of another. Subscriber database 140 includes, for each subscriber,subscriber's record 141, entered by the subscriber upon subscription andbeing updated regularly, in particular to refresh the subscriber'swish-list 145 in response to the results of recent encounters or torecent updates to the subscriber database 140 or attraction database150. The subscriber inputs for updating subscriber database 140 are madeusing subscriber terminals 120 and are received through subscriberinterface 175 and communication link 101. Subscriber interface 175 isalso operated to present the encounters generated by processor 160 bysending encounter details to subscriber terminals 120 via communicationlink 101. Attraction database 150 includes attractions 151, entered fromvarious sources: by attraction providers from commercial attractionprovider servers 123, communication link 105 and attraction interface179; by subscribers through subscriber terminals 120, communication link101 and subscriber interface 175; and by a leader through leaderterminal 130, communication link 103 and leader interface 177. Feedbackfield 151F is optionally included in the records 151 of attractiondatabase 150, for recording opinions and advice from subscribers whohave already experienced the respective attraction (for instance aspecific movie or theater show), to be presented for the considerationof other subscribers. Encounter program 165 is stored in a storagedevice as a set of instructions (i.e. software code) for the operationof encounter generator 110, and specifically for assigning encounters tosubscribers in response to their wish-lists, in accordance to doctrine &rules 171. Doctrine & rules 171 is a set of computer algorithms thatdetermine how the wish-lists of subscribers are transformed into theselection of ensembles and attractions, as will be described in moredetail below. Doctrine & rules 171 are optionally customized by a leadervia leader terminal 130, leader interface 177 and communication link103. A guide database 182 includes viewable and/or printable files withguides for leaders and subscribers, providing guidelines, ideas and tipsto make the encounters more effective. Such guides are distributed uponspecific events according to doctrine & rules 171 by processor 160 vialeader terminal 130 or user terminals 120. A history log 180 is managedto log all system operations, so that encounters can be selected takinginto account previous encounters. Interfaces 175, 177 and 179 includecommunication and protocol means to determine access rights andcommunication options to processor 160 from outside, as well asaddresses, access rights and communication options for reaching outsideservers and terminals from processor 160, and can be implemented usingvarious hardware and software means, within one or several physicalunits.

It will be noted that attraction database 150 can include anycombination or sub-combination of attractions 151 generated bysubscribers, such as invitations to a private party, a journey, or amovie identified by the subscriber over the Internet or in a newspaper;attractions entered by a leader or system administrator, such as socialgames described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/841,268;attractions received, copied, or mirrored from commercial attractionprovider servers 123 of attraction providers such as attractionoperators and attraction agencies; promotional offers for the communitymembers offered by attraction providers though attraction interface 179,and direct links to attractions servers 123 so that attractions can bereviewed and ranked by subscribers and selected by processor 160 even iftheir details are not physically recorded in attraction database 150. Inan extreme case, attraction database 150 consists of just a collectionof links to commercial attraction provider servers 123. In anotherextreme case, all the attraction information is entered directly intoattraction database 150 by attraction providers, subscribers and/orleader, thus allowing eliminating commercial attraction provider servers123, attraction interface 179 and communication link 105 fromembodiments of the present invention. Database 150 is very dynamic bynature since attraction offers are changed and refreshed perpetually.

It will be appreciated that the blocks described in FIGS. 1-2 arelogical rather than physical entities, and can be implemented using avariety of suitable hardware, operating systems and database software,as well as distributed computing networks, known to persons skilled inthe art, and even have a single block spread over more than a singlecomputer; in particular, subscriber's record 141 may have the personalwish-list record 145 hosted on a different computer from the one hostingthe other contents of the record, for functionality or privacy reasons.A specific case is where all or part of subscriber database 140 ishosted on a server of an existing membership organization, such as anInternet social networking or dating service, while the other blocks ofencounter generator 110 are hosted on a server of another serviceprovider. In another specific case of interest, encounter generator 110can operate with subscriber database 140 and attraction database 150whereby each of them is actually spread over one or more servers ofmembership organizations and attraction providers, respectively. Inanother case of interest, functionalities of encounter generator 110 canbe performed by software applets running on personal terminals 124,provided that such terminals have the appropriate computation resourcesand online availability (which most desktop PCs may have). On the otherextreme, the system of FIG. 1 can be compacted, even to the extreme caseof an all-in-one configuration, wherein a single personal computer isused to implement the functionalities of encounter generator 110, leaderterminal 130, and subscriber terminals 120 materialized as a publicterminal 125. Also, a single physical server can host a plurality ofencounter generators 110 serving a plurality of communities.

FIG. 3 schematically describes an exploded view of subscriber record 141of FIG. 2. Field 142 includes a subscriber ID, typically a uniqueidentification number that will distinguish each record from others insame database 140. Forum identifiers 143 indicate the forums to whichthe respective subscriber presently belongs; for instance, to a closedforum of friends and to a forum of ski fans. Subscriber's description144 describes the subscriber personal details, such as name or names (incase that the subscriber is a couple or a family), ages(s), geographicand contact details, traits, and general interests. Wish-list 145includes a dynamically-updatable selection of wishes: scores 145S definethe level of interest of the present subscriber, i.e. the owner ofsubscriber record 141, in meeting other subscribers from the relatedforums. In specific cases, especially with friend seekers and mateseekers, optional subfield ‘ready for one-on-one meeting’ 145C allows asubscriber indicate that he or she feels comfortable with having aone-on-one encounter with the respective scored subscriber, otherwisethey can be mutually assigned only to group meetings (of at least threeparticipants). Subfield 145C can, in some implementations, be anexplicit checkbox that the user selects or deselects with respect toeach scored prospective partner; or, in other implementations, it canbecome part of score 145S; e.g. through a publicized system rule that “ascore of ‘6 ’ or more implies that you agree to a one-on-one meetingwith the scored partner”. Ranks 145R define the level of interest of thepresent subscriber in specific attractions from attraction database 150.Timing 145T defines the desired schedules for having meetings. Policy145P specifies how often the subscriber wishes to participate inencounters, as well as the subscriber's instant priority among theselection of partners (i.e. scores), attractions (i.e. ranks) orschedule (i.e. timing). Miscellaneous preferences 145M includesadditional information with respect to the desired attractions, such asadding the name of a specific movie if the attraction is specified justas ‘movie’ in attraction database 150. Encounter history 146 records theencounters assigned to the instant subscriber by encounter generator110, for the cases (especially with mate seekers and friend seekers)that the encounter generator is programmed to systematically acquaintparticipants to each other. Billing 147 includes details of financialtransactions between the subscriber and the community organizer, whereappropriate. It will be noted that scores 145S, ranks 145R and timing145T can be specified in interdependent manner; for example: one mayrank theater high with respect to one partner and low with respect toanother partner; one may time a restaurant to a lunch break while caféwill be timed to the evening, etc., as demonstrated in FIG. 4E below.

FIGS. 4A-E provide an exemplary exploded view on variants of wish-list145 of FIGS. 2 and 3. The tables demonstrate both a user interface forentering the wish-list, as well as the content of the respectivesubscriber's wish-list record 145 of FIG. 2. The present examples relateto a forum of eight entertainment seekers and to the wish-list of anexemplary “Mary” who is one of the forum members. FIG. 4A describes anexemplary policy 145P, wherein Mary has indicated that presently shewants to go out for a few hours three times this week, as well as twicefor a weekend break in the coming two months and have one long journeythis year; she has also determined that presently her first priority isthe attraction she wants to visit, her second priority is with whom shewants to visit that attraction, while she is relatively tolerant withrespect to when she wants to go out within her timing specifications145T (see FIG. 4C).

FIG. 4B shows exemplary scores 145S of Mary with respect to the otherforum members. Thus, Mary clearly prefers the company of Peter or Rachelto that of Jim or Suzy. This affects the probability of encountergenerator 110 arranging a meeting with the specified prospect, takinginto account also the reciprocal score for Mary by each relevantsubscriber.

FIG. 4C demonstrates an exemplary timing 145T of the present subscriber,with respect to going out during the next seven days, where the relativepriorities are represented by points in the range 1-9; thus the presentsubscriber can go out on Tuesday or Thursday for lunch, but highlyprefers to go out Sunday afternoon or on the evening of Friday orSaturday; possible times for a weekend break within the coming twomonths and long trips within this year are indicated by their dates andrelative priority in parentheses.

FIG. 4D demonstrates an exemplary set of ranks 145R and miscellaneouspreferences 145M entered by the present subscriber, Mary, within herwish-list 145, with respect to attractions 145A. She would agree to goto a movie that is a comedy, within a company of 2-4 persons, providedthat tickets have promotional pricing. However, she would highly preferto see the movie “Harry Potter” accompanied by one partner. She'll agreeto go out for a Saturday in the country, but would highly preferSaturday-Sunday in the mountains.

FIG. 4E demonstrates an exemplary consolidated wish-list in aninterdependent format, which is an alternative to FIGS. 4B-D. Thus, ourpresent subscriber Mary agrees to go to a promotional comedy in acompany of 2-4 persons, provided that Suzy is not included (rank=‘0’);the same event will be of high priority (rank=‘9’) if John is includedin the company; other partners are ranked by default ‘4’. Andy's café isher favorite (default rank=‘9’) for Friday evening, but only if she goesthere with one of the men in the forum (going there with a woman isranked ‘0’).

It will be noted that in many cases, especially with entertainmentseekers, an encounter generated by the present invention can bepresented as a suggestion, and the parties are free to update and tweakthe particulars through a conventional dialog beyond the scope of thepresent invention. Just, for example, if encounter generator 110 haspicked the present subscriber (Mary) and John for visiting a movietheater on Friday for a comedy, they will need to negotiate which comedythey both have not seen and would like to visit, and if they do not findone, they may decide to visit a café instead. As a general rule, themore specific the wish-list of a subscriber, the lower is theprobability that encounter generator 110 finds an encounter that matchesall of his, her or their requirements. A subscriber whose wish-listexpresses the willingness to go out to any event, at any time and withany combination of friends from the forum, will be picked by encountergenerator 110 for many more encounters than another subscriber whosewish-list determines that he wants to go out only to a specific movie,only with Rachel and only on a Friday at 9:00 p.m.

In other situations, for example in a forum of mate seekers, highattraction specificity and high subscriber compliance with the specificsof the encounters generated by encounter generator 110 may be requiredaccording to the forum rules in order to accomplish the forum goals.Co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/841,268 describes how mateseekers can benefit from attractions that are interactive social gamesfor identifying prospects and developing relationships. With referenceto that application, FIG. 4A and the accompanying text there describescores for the participants of the selected gender, FIG. 4B theredescribes ranks for a list of attractions, and FIG. 4C there describesan alternative to the ranking by FIG. 4B there, wherein the ranks aredependent on the prospective partners, which embodies there the optionalinterdependencies among scoring, ranking and timing the presentinvention.

FIGS. 4A-E of the present application present exemplary contents ofwish-lists 145, in a format that also resembles input screens forentering or updating the respective data. Many variations of data entryscreens are known in the art of GUI (graphic user interface) design toease entry of data, such as fill-in tables, checkboxes, pull-down menus,context-sensitive (right-click) selections and so forth, which extendfrom the focus of the present invention. However, a point that deservesspecial attention is what data is available to a subscriber whenentering or updating the wish-list. A specific case of interest ishighlighting specific items in the attraction database 150, for exampleby color-coding, to identify special cases such as: attractions thathave been already entered by other forum members; attractions that havebeen recommended/criticized by subscribers in field 151F of attractiondatabase 150 (FIG. 1); and attractions which are offered underpromotional terms by the attraction providers from commercial attractionprovider servers 123. Another data presentation option relates topartial disclosure of the subscribers' wish-lists; while the scoresgranted to other subscribers are inherently confidential, the ranks ofvarious attractions may be presented to other subscribers, especially incases of attractions entered into attraction database 150 by theinitiative of subscribers. The publication of such attractions, andpossibly the preferred schedules, can form an electronic billboard forthe forum members, identifying and highlighting a specific attractionsas associated with a specific subscriber and timing, such as “Suzy isinterested in visiting the movie Harry Potter on Tuesdayafternoon”—which may drive other subscribers to notice same attractionand timing to affect their own wish-lists.

FIG. 5 provides a schematic generalized overview of the operation ofpreferred embodiments of the present invention customized for variousaudiences. The descriptions below refer also to FIGS. 1 and 2. Blockshaving a dashed frame represent steps that are optional in all orspecific embodiments. Operation commences in a step 220 by a communityformed by member registration into subscriber database 140 (or analready exiting community joining the service of the present invention).The community membership can be updated anytime afterward (not shown).Registration is preferably made electronically, using a subscriberterminal 120. During registration, the personal details are entered intosubscriber's record 141. In a step 222 a forum of subscribers isoptionally derived from the community members. The forum selectionaffects subscriber database 140 by including the forum identifier 143within the subscriber's records 141 of the respective subscribers. In astep 224 the forum members are optionally introduced to each otherthrough a prescribed set of one or more encounters (as representedsymbolically by optional loop 224L) that is generated by encountergenerator 110. In a step 226, a series of primary encounters (theplurality represented symbolically by loop 226L) is generated within theforum in response to the wish-lists 145. The forum membership may beupdated between encounters in optional step 228 to reflect subscribersadded to or leaving the forum. In case of entertainment seekers, step226 with optional updates from step 228 may last indefinitely, upon thedecision of the forum members. However, in case of mate seekers orfriend seekers, the encounters will start to converge in step 230 toeither more encounters between subscribers who developed affection foreach other, or to subscribers failing to develop mutual interest withothers; this will lead, after reaching a predefined level of mutualinterest, or a predefined number of encounters, or upon thestabilization of the scores within the forum's wish-lists, to theconclusion in step 240 of either having found the desired mate orfriends (and then maybe offering registration to a forum ofentertainment seekers), or failing with the present forum, and theneither joining another forum or trying another method.

FIG. 6 symbolically lists five levels 250 for involving a human leaderin community and forum operations. A “leader” herein denotes anindividual or a team that is involved in facilitating community or forumactivities and has access to leader terminal 130 of FIG. 1 forpredefined operations. Professional leader 252 is a professional, suchas a psychologist or group moderator, who physically participates in atleast some group encounters; such a professional may have extendedrights to monitor and intervene in the operation of the system throughleader terminal 130. Administrative leader 254 participates in groupencounters for coordination and services, and has limited access to thesystem through leader terminal 130, such as for getting requirementsfrom the system (e.g. providing accessories for a social game) orvetoing some attractions that have become irrelevant because of externalattraction cancellations or harsh weather conditions. Remote leader 246is a professional or administrative leader that operates similarly toleaders 252 or 254, but does not physically attend an event; in thiscase, subscribers preferably communicate with the leader either throughtheir terminals 120, or through any other electronic communicationsystem. Self leadership 258 is when a forum is led by an individual or ateam from the forum; such leadership can be established either by anindividual subscriber who have actually initiated and established theforum (e.g. an initiator of a high school class reunion), or is electedby the forum members. No leader 260 is the case where the nature of theencounters does not require a human leader; for example in a forum offriends seeking entertainment in movies, restaurants and theater shows.It will be noted that the present discussion on leadership relates tothe operation of system 100 of the present invention, primarily throughterminal 130, toward arranging encounters; once an encounter has beenarranged by the system of the present invention, further leadershipwithin the encounter (e.g. by a ski guide, a tour guide or in a guidedconcert) are beyond the scope of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE OPERATION

The following sections will describe in more detail the steps of FIG. 5.At each step, the discussion will highlight the differences between theaudiences of mate seekers, friend seekers and entertainment seekers.Where appropriate, the description will make references to the teachingsof co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/841,268 to the presentinventor.

Deriving a Forum

Forum derivation relates to step 222 of the general operation procedureof FIG. 5. A community is optionally divided into forums, to ease thescoring procedure by subscribers, to retain the privacy of subscribers,to make the interaction more focused and motivated (for mate and friendseekers) and to make the technical operation of encounter generator 110more efficient. It will be appreciated, however, that forum derivationis not mandatory for the operation of the present invention, and haslittle advantage in communities that are both homogenous and relativelysmall, such as the students of a certain college; thus, defining a forumwhich spans the entire community is perfectly acceptable.

FIG. 7 provides a list 270 of various exemplary methods for forumderivation. Method 271 relates to a forum established by a subscriber ora forum leader, who initiates a new forum of, say, skiing enthusiastsaged 30-40 living in Denver, Colo. Method 272 relates to a company, suchas a group of friends or the members of a certain school, who join alarger community as a closed forum. It will be noted that for a closedforum, the community serves just as a functional framework for sharingthe technical resources of the present invention, and has no socialrole. Method 273 relates to the case where a community leader derives aforum from the community members; this is a preferred method for mateseekers and friend seekers, since the process of identifying anddeveloping relationships with a prospective mate or friend is preferablymade through repeated encounters within a relatively-compact forum ofcompatible subscribers, as described in co-pending U.S. application Ser.No. 10/841,268. Deriving a forum of compatible subscribers can be madeby the commonsense of the community leader; to assist his or hercommonsense, the community leader can sort subscribers by rough criteriaof geographic location, age, education level and balance between thenumbers of men and women, or by more sophisticated personality-matchingcriteria and computerized aids known in the art. Also, if the communitymembers have already participated in a previous mate-seeking orfriends-seeking forum, encounter generator can optionally identify fromthe previous wish-lists 145 subscribers who have already developed apredefined level of mutual liking, and recommend their joint inclusionwithin a common forum for the next encounter series. A community leadercan also select to establish for each subscriber a circle of subscribersthat are mutually-compatible with that subscriber. As explained above,such circles may often not coincide because compatibility criteria areoften not transitive (e.g. age 30 may be found compatible with age 25and age 35, but ages 25 and 35 may be found incompatible). Method 274 ofFIG. 7 relates to updates to an existing forum by new members joining orexisting members leaving. For example, a forum of skiing enthusiastswhich invites new members by the initiative of its current members,forum leader or community leader, or an existing member leaving uponrelocating to another state. Method 275 relates to the case where anentertainment seeking subscriber defines a circle that includes himselfand a number of selected friends, and asks to have mutual access throughthe system to only the members of this circle. Since friendship is nottransitive, i.e. a friend-of-a-friend is not necessarily a friend,circles will often not coincide.

FIG. 8 schematically describes an exemplary division of a diversifiedcommunity 280 into forums. The silhouettes shown in FIG. 8 represent avariety of subscribers that can be individuals, couples or families. Itwill be noted that an individual may be part of more than one subscriber(e.g. as himself/herself, as part of a couple and as part of a family),and can belong to more than one forum. Forum derivation is made, forexample, by the community leader through leader terminal 130 (FIG. 1),according to the characteristics and requests of the subscribers, asexplained above. In the present example, forum 282 is made up offamilies interested in skiing, while forum 284 is of families interestedin family-oriented classical music concerts; it would be noted that somesubscribers belong to both forums 282 and 284. Forum 286 is composed ofa group of couples who are already a company of friends, and prefer toarrange encounters only within their company. Forum 288 is a group ofcompatible singles, selected by a community leader to participate in aseries of encounters in accordance to the teachings of co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/841,268.

FIG. 8A is a schematic illustration that reemphasizes the circleconcept. Member 281 belongs to community 280, and frame 281C encompassesthe circle of member 281, i.e. member 281 and the other communitymembers that are assignable to an encounter with member 281. Similarly,frame 283C encompasses member 283 and his circle. It would be noted,however, that while member 285 can be assigned for an encounter withboth member 281 and member 283, the latter two cannot be assigned to amutual encounter because they do not belong to the same forum. In oneexample, this is because while member 285 is a friend of both member 281and member 283 and both have elected him for their respective circles,members 281 and member 283 are not friends of each other. In anotherexample, the leader of community 280 has established circle 281 as thosemembers who are not more that 5 years of age apart from member 281 (whois 25 years old) and therefore included member 285 (30 years old) inthat circle. Similarly, member 285 is included in the circle of member283 (35 years old). However, members 281 and 283 are not included in thesame circle since they are 10 years apart. A similar situation may arisewhen a circle is derived by geographical vicinity or most otherproximity criteria.

Introductory Encounters

One or more introductory encounters (step 224 of FIG. 5) are optional,for acquainting forum members with each other toward primary encounters226. Typically, forum introduction is needed for acquainting friendseekers and mate seekers who are originally unacquainted with eachother, and this step can be skipped in case of a new forum ofentertainment seekers established by or for people who already know eachother. The main practical function of the forum introduction isproviding an initial basis for mutual scoring within the respectivewish-lists. Thus, mate seekers need to get introduced only with theforum members of their selected gender, and friend seekers may want tobe introduced to everybody in their forum.

FIG. 9 graphically presents a list 300 of introduction methods forintroductory encounters 124 (FIG. 5). These methods can be usedindividually or in combination in order to reach a desired level ofinitial acquaintance, by the option of the forum members or the forum orcommunity leader. The forum introduction can be arranged manually, bythe forum members or the forum or community leader, externally to theoperation of encounter generator 110, or can be arranged by encountergenerator 110, as described below.

Electronic introduction 302 by encounter generator 110 uses electroniccommunication, such as a web browser, email, Internet chat, videoteleconference or telephone conversation, to let the forum members getinformation and interact with each other on one-on-one and/or groupsettings. Such interactions are arranged according to the methodologiesdescribed below with respect to face-to-face introductions 304, 306 and308. Even if electronic introduction 302 is used, it is preferablyfollowed by face-to-face introductory encounters to complete theintroduction. Forum meetings 304 are arranged by encounter generator 110calling the forum members to meet and get introduced to each other in aparty, a short journey, or a short guided group workshop. Revolvinggroups 306 is a systematic series of face-to-face group meetings calledby encounter generator 110 to ensure that everyone meets every relevantother from the forum, through a series group meetings of, say, 3-8members in each meeting. Revolving couples 308 is a series offace-to-face couple meetings (e.g. visiting a movie followed by a café)called by encounter generator 110 to ensure that everyone meets everyrelevant other from the forum on a one-on-one basis.

The introductory encounters 224 are different from the primaryencounters 226 of FIG. 5, in that the participants are preselected foreach meeting to ensure systematic introduction, thus ignoring mutualscoring, if such has already been entered by the participants; and theoffered attractions are adapted to be long and interactive enough toallow reasonable acquaintance while being short and neutral enough toavoid awkward experiences with unwanted strangers. Comparing the threeface-to-face introduction methods 304, 306 and 308, forum meeting 304 isthe hardest to organize since it requires a meeting place and a meetingguide; it is very efficient since it is completed in one session; but itis the least effective since acquaintance experiences are random and maybe superficial and confused with each other; revolving couples 308 isthe easiest to organize and coordinate, is very effective in getting amutual impression, is very inefficient since many meetings are needed inorder to complete the forum introduction, and may be stressful for manywho feel uncomfortable in a one-on-one meeting with a complete stranger;revolving groups 306 seems to offer a fair compromise between a forummeeting and revolving couple with respect to ease of organization,effectiveness, efficiency and enjoyment. Thus the choice of a method orcombination of methods is the option of the forum members or the forumor community leader, according to the circumstances of the forum and thepreferences of its members.

While introductory encounters are insensitive to the mutual scoring ofthe forum members, they are preferably still responsive to the otherwish-list elements, such as attraction ranking, timing and miscellaneouspreferences.

Principal Encounters

Principal encounters 226 (FIG. 5) are the heart of the presentinvention. In a forum of entertainment seekers, encounters allow theforum members to enjoy the company of each other while visiting avariety of attractions, and thus the loop 226L (FIG. 5) can beopen-ended, with some forum updates 228 happening when new members jointhe forum or current members leave it. In a forum of mate seekers orfriend seekers, the process involves not only enjoyable encounters, butalso seeking opportunities for meeting a mate or making new friends.Accordingly, such encounters within a specific forum are organized for apredetermined time or number of encounters or until the mutual scoringwithin the participants' wish-lists stabilizes, hence the elements ofconvergence 230 (FIG. 5) and conclusion 240. Convergence 230 is based ona behavioral pattern expected to be recognized by encounter generator110 in the mutual scores inputted by the subscribers, identifying thosewho have found each other within the forum and those who could not finda mate or create new friendships on a mutual basis within the currentforum, and it affects the operation of encounter generator 110 byassigning more intensive and demanding encounters to subscribers whohave reached a higher level of acquaintance and/or mutual interest, asmeasured by their mutual scores as well as by the number of times theyhave met (see co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/841,268 to thepresent inventor.) Upon conclusion, some participants have reached theirgoal, and may move to another forum of entertainment seekers along withtheir new mate or friends, while some others who did not reach theirgoal may wish to participate in another session of encounters within anewly-formed forum for having another chance with other prospects. Sinceencounter generator 110 knows the mutual scores of all forum membersfrom their wish-lists 145, it preferably, upon the conclusion of thecurrent forum, reports to the community leader on community members whohave reached a predefined level of mutual interest, so that the leadercan put them together in a next forum derived according to step 222.

Arranging Prinicipal Encounters

This section describes in detail the process of arranging principalencounters by encounter generator 110 of FIGS. 1-2, represented by step226 of FIG. 5.

An encounter is composed of an ensemble, schedule, and an attraction(that may be an appended attraction, e.g. a visit to a movie followed bya visit to a café. In the case of mate or friend seekers, some or allencounters may involve a schedule dictated by a forum leader, leavingprimarily the ensemble and attraction selection in the hands of theparticipants. In the case of entertainment seekers, there is often noforum leader at all, and members may be free to add attractions intoattraction database 150 (FIG. 2), and frequently update their wish-list(i.e. policy, scores, ranks, timing and miscellaneous preferences—seeFIGS. 4A-E) according to changing attraction offers, personalcircumstances, and mood; attraction database 150 is also very dynamic,since it continually receives updates from both subscribers andattraction providers (from commercial attraction provider servers 123 ofFIG. 1) under regular or promotional terms. Thus, the most demandingoperation of encounter generator is for the case of entertainmentseekers, and the following discussion will cover this case in details.For a discussion focused on a configuration of encounter generator 110for mate seekers or friend-seekers, see also co-pending U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/841,268 to the present inventor, incorporated herein byreference as if set forth herein. The following discussion focuses onentertainment-seeking subscribers.

With reference to FIGS. 1-2, an encounter is generated by encountergenerator 110 by picking several subscribers to compose an ensemble, andassigning to them an attraction and schedule; alternatively, a schedulemay be first selected, followed by adding subscribers and attractions,or an attraction can be selected first, followed by adding subscribersand schedules. The operation of encounter generator 110 is guided by thewish-lists 145 of the forum members, and by the content of attractiondatabase 150, possibly including links to commercial attraction providerservers 123 of attraction providers. Sometimes encounter generator 110identifies subscribers with high mutual score and either matchingattractions or matching schedules, but not both. In this case, encountergenerator 110 may preferably “suggest” an encounter for the respectivepartners by sending them a message such as ‘to Jim: John and you haveexpressed high interest in going out tomorrow evening, but you prefer atheater show and John prefers a movie; maybe you want to talk to eachother to find a mutual choice’, or, in the other case: ‘to Jim: John andyou have expressed high interest in visiting a movie, but you preferTuesday and John prefers Wednesday; maybe you want to talk to each otherto find a mutual time.’

In its operation, encounter generator 110 needs to check, match andresolve conflicting wishes. While conflicting wishes with respect toattraction specifics and timing can be resolved by suggesting callingeach other as described above, conflicting wishes with respect topartner scores are much more sensitive, which makes wish-list 145preferably secret. Thus, the fact that John prefers the company of Jimon that of Paul will usually be kept secret from anyone except John andencounter generator 110. Now, if John prefers the company of Jim, butJim prefers the company of Paul, while Paul has equal liking to bothJohn and Jim, there is a conflict that needs to be fairly resolved.Sometimes it is resolved naturally through the attraction preference,while in other cases random number generator 160R is preferably calledto draw the choice.

With a large number of factors and variables, it is hard or evenimpossible to define a ‘perfect strategy’ that will make everysubscriber happy; however, a ‘good enough’ choice may be satisfactory inmost cases, since, in any case, the encounters involve desirableattractions with desirable partners, and the preferable inclusion of arandom factor adds variety, reduces the complexity of the design andexecution of encounter generator 110, and ensures fairness.

Doctrine and rules 171 of FIG. 2 determine how encounter program 165runs on processor 160 to generate encounters. The following willrepresent an exemplary preferred variation of doctrine and rules 171.

Reference is made to FIG. 10, which describes a preferred exemplary modeof operation of system 100 of FIG. 1 for a community of entertainmentseekers (embodiments focused on organized events for mate seekers andfriend seekers are covered in detail in co-pending U.S. application Ser.No. 10/841,268 to the present inventor and are incorporated as if setforth herein). Blocks with dashed frames represent optional steps thatare dependent on specific implementations. The present exemplarydoctrine assumes that encounters for entertainment seekers can begenerated and updated with a resolution of once a day, so the processstart at a step 350 by activating encounter generator 110 (FIGS. 1-2)at, say, 6:00 a.m. daily to generate encounters for entertainmentseekers.

A step 352 represents schematically that the next steps will be repeatedfor each period type; this will be best defined and understood withrespect also to FIG. 4C. Short encounters, such as a movie or a café,are preferably generated for the next seven days; weekend breaks arepreferably generated for the next two months; and long journeys, such asa trip abroad, are preferably generated for the next year. The nextsteps will be described for the case of generating short encounters forthe next week; similar steps will be repeated through step 352 forgenerating weekend breaks and long journeys for the next two months anda year, respectively.

A step 354 identifies community subscribers (that can be individuals,couples or families, according to the instant community) who areavailable for the period under discussion, which is the next seven daysin the present example, and then employs random number generator 160Rfor randomly picking one of them, that will be referred-to as a ‘kernelsubscriber’. Subscriber availability is preferably determined by fourfactors: (a) by the subscribers' policy 145P (FIGS. 3-4A) that defineshow many times a week the subscriber wishes to go out; (b) by the pastfulfillment of those wishes through previous runs of encounter generator110 as derived from history log 180 (FIG. 2) or encounter history record146 (FIG. 3); (c) the timing preferences 145T (FIGS. 3 and 4C); and (d)if same person appears within more type of a subscriber (e.g. a coupleand an individual), then a previous assignment by encounter generator110 as one entity (e.g. a couple assigned for a movie) may precludegoing out as an individual subscriber on the same day. Thus, if thepolicy 145P of a prospective subscriber indicates going out once a week,and the subscriber has already been selected for a movie tomorrow in aprevious run of encounter generator 110, and the date a week from now isexcluded in the subscribers' timing preferences 145T, then thissubscriber is considered unavailable in step 354. Thus, step 354 ends upwith a subscriber that is available for an encounter within the nextseven days. If no available subscriber is identified in step 354, thenencounter generator 110 will attempt to move back to step 352 for thenext period type (e.g. weekend breaks within the next two months), or tosteps 384 and 390 to conclude the daily procedure (connecting lines anddecision blocks for this case are omitted from the flowchart of FIG. 10for brevity and clarity).

A step 356 is optional, for the case that the subscriber is a member ofmore than one forum (see forums 282 and 284 of FIG. 8.) In such a case,one of the forums is selected (in alternative embodiments, thesubscriber may prioritize the forums, and the selection will be madeaccording to such priorities). The forum can be any of the forum typesof FIG. 7, including a circle 275 of the kernel subscriber. Step 356 isobviated if the subscriber belongs to only one forum. In any case, entryinto step 358 is done after a specific forum has been identified for thekernel subscriber. In some cases discussed above, the forum mayencompass the entire community.

A step 358 scans all the members of the present forum to identify thosethat are still available (see the availability criteria discussed withrespect to step 354) and can be matched based on mutual scoring, rankingand timing. Members that cannot be perfectly matched with the kernelsubscriber are: (a) those who have excluded the kernel subscriber orhave been excluded by the kernel subscriber through a ‘0 ’ score 145S inthe respective wish-lists 145; (b) those who have no common attractionof interest, as derived from the respective attraction rankings 145R;and (c) those who have no overlapping schedule with the kernelsubscriber, as derived from the respective timings 145T.

A step 360 categorizes the findings of step 358 into three cases: if noother subscriber can be matched with the present subscriber, then thepresent subscriber is flagged as unavailable for step 354 for thecurrent daily run (or unavailable for the current forum selected in step356 if the subscriber is a member of more than one forum), and theprocedure will jump back to step 354. If only partial matches have beenfound, i.e. either the attraction specifics or the timing could not bematched, then in a step 362 the subscriber will be registered in atemporary pool of possible attraction suggestions, as will be describedin more detail below with respect to step 384. In the successful case ofidentifying potential matches in step 360, the procedure will move tostep 370 for actual matching.

In a step 370, all matching combinations of partners, attractions andtimings with respect to the current kernel subscriber are generated andthen sorted by mutual scoring, by mutual ranking of the sameattractions, and by timing. The sorting priority is determined by thepolicy 145P of the kernel subscriber (see FIGS. 3 and 4A) that formspart of the respective wish-list 145. Thus, if the subscriber's currentmain interest is finding partners for visiting a specific attraction(see the example of FIG. 4A), then the attraction matching (i.e. mutualattraction ranking) will have first priority while the specific partners(i.e. mutual scoring) will have a second priority and the timing will bethe third. In another case, when one wishes to go out with specificfriends and cares less about attraction and timing, the kernelsubscriber's policy 145P expresses these priorities accordingly andresult in sorting by mutual scoring before sorting by attraction rankingor timing. If two combinations deserve an identical placement in thesorted list, their actual order is preferably determined randomly.

In a step 372, an ensemble (i.e. the subscriber and one or morepartners), an attraction and a timing are selected from the combinationthat appears first in the sorted list. For brevity, the presentpreferred embodiment is described with respect to ensembles of twosubscribers. In an optional step 374, the respective attraction serverthat is related to the selected attraction is contacted to confirmattraction availability. If the requested attraction and/or timing arefound unavailable in step 374, then the process jumps back to step 372that moves to the next combination in the list generated in step 370.The loop of steps 372-374 continues until the ensemble, attraction andtiming in a selected combination are confirmed in step 374, or until theentire combination list from step 370 is exhausted, which leads to afailure, resulting similarly to ‘no’ in block 360.

Following the sequence of steps 372-374, an encounter composed of anensemble, attraction and timing has been generated, and is announced ina step 378 to the ensemble members, and, according to the system'sdoctrine and rules 171 (FIG. 2), possibly also presenting an electroniccommerce screen, possibly linked directly to the respective commercialattraction server 123 (FIG. 1), for booking, where appropriate, whichcompletes the successful encounter arrangement for that ensemblemembers. In a step 382, the process loops back to step 354 for arrangingthe next encounter within the same period type, or, if all possibleencounters for the present period have been completed, then the loopmoves to step 352 for starting with the next period type (i.e. moving toarranging weekend breaks for the next two months.) If all possibleencounters in all period types have been completed, then the proceduremoves to an optional step 384, to look into the pool of partly-matchedmembers created in optional step 362. This pool included subscriberpairs who have matching scores (i.e. have mutual interest to meet) aswell as either matching schedules or matching attractions but not both.However, since the system has had many iterations through steps 358 and360, some of those who were entered into the pool in step 362 have beenremoved since they found a complete match, while some others mayparticipate in more than two possible partial matches. Encountergenerator 110 then identifies the remaining partial matches, prioritizesthem according to the mutual scoring of the members, and generatessuggestions and sends them to the respective subscribers, who areoffered to call each other in order to resolve conflicts with respect toattraction or schedule. The process ends at step 390, readying encountergenerator 110 for receiving updates from subscribers, forum andcommunity leaders, and attraction providers, toward another encountergeneration on the next day.

It would be noted that the doctrine described above with respect to FIG.10 is centered on selecting randomly a kernel subscriber and checkingmatched combination with respect to that subscriber. Accordingly, thatsubscriber's wish-list, and especially the subscriber's policy, getsadvantage over the wish-lists of other subscribers who are matched withthe kernel subscriber. However, the combinations sorted in step 370 takeinto account mutual scoring, mutual timing and mutual ranking, and also,the very fact that the kernel subscriber is selected randomly offersfairness because the next time other subscribers will be picked askernel subscribers in step 354.

The random selection described above offers a fair and efficientdoctrine for running encounter generator 110, but not the only possibledoctrine. Alternative doctrines that match different tastes and offer avariety of tradeoffs between responsiveness to the wish-lists (undervarious models for measuring such responsiveness) and the complexity ofthe operation of encounter generator 110 can be devised by those skilledin the art.

Mutual Scoring, Ranking and Timing

The doctrine described with respect to FIG. 10 above, takes into accountthe mutual interests of the members of a forum for selecting anensemble, attraction and schedule. FIGS. 11A-14B demonstrate how suchmutual interests are calculated. For clarity and brevity, an exemplarysimplified case is described, including an eight-memberentertainment-seeking forum, four attractions and seven scheduleoptions. The description will focus on the viewpoint of a specifickernel subscriber, “Mary”. It will be appreciated that the principlesdescribed below can be seamlessly extended into larger forums, manyattraction offers and a variety of schedule selections.

FIGS. 11A-B describe and exemplary embodiment for calculating mutualscoring from wish-lists 145 of FIGS. 1-2. FIG. 11A describes the scoringof the forum members (upper row) by the forum members (leftmost column).The scoring scheme used in the present exemplary embodiment is in thescale of 0-9, wherein ‘0 ’ means that a specific forum member isunwanted by the respective forum member, and the other score valuesreflect an intuitive relative preference; thus, Rachel excludes Marywhile John excludes Peter. At least this part of the wish-list ispreferably kept confidential, since the subscribers want their truesocial preferences to affect the encounters generated by the system, butwould often prefer not to openly divulge their true personal feelings toothers.

FIG. 11B relates to Mary as a kernel subscriber selected in step 354 ofFIG. 10. The ‘to’ row describes Mary's interests in other subscribers(copied from the table of FIG. 11A), while the ‘from’ row describes theinterest of the other forum subscribers in Mary (from Mary's column inthe same table of FIG. 11A). Thus, although Mary likes Rachel very much(‘8’ score), Rachel dislikes Mary (‘0’). The ‘mutual’ row calculates themutual liking between Mary and each of the other forum members. Theformula presented in table 11B is based on zeroing the mutual liking ifanyone dislikes Mary or is disliked by Mary, while all other mutuallikings are based on adding up the mutual scores. It will be appreciatedthat many other approaches to weigh-in the mutual scoring in order toderive a mutual liking are possible, for example by multiplying theindividual scores or by calculating the root-mean-square of non-zeroscores, etc. While often the formulas will give an equal weight to thescores of all participants, asymmetric weighing is also possible in someembodiments, for example for giving higher weight to the wishes of womenin a singles' implementation, or to the one who has a birthday thisweek. The effective formulas are determined by doctrine & rules 171(FIG. 2) and can be updated from time to time, for example by the forumor community leader or by a system administrator. Encounter generator110 (FIGS. 1-2) derives table 11B from table 11A and then can prioritizeprospective partners for Mary by the descending order of John,Peter/Paul, Jim, Suzy and Anna (Rachel being excluded), as can be easilyderived from sorting the ‘mutual’ row of the table of FIG. 11B.

FIGS. 12A-B relate to timing preferences, within a simplified exemplarytime slots of seven weekdays (a finer timing resolution is shown in FIG.4C). FIG. 12 describes the relative timing preferences of the forummembers, wherein ‘0 ’ excludes a time slot while ‘9 ’ shows the highestpreference. FIG. 12B matches the timing preferences of Mary, our currentkernel subscriber, with the other forum members, by a simplified methodof adding-up the non-zero timings. As can bee seen, Mary wishes to goout only on Tuesday, Friday or Saturday, with a possible meeting withPaul only on Saturday, while preferably meeting with Rachel or Suzy onFriday; other possibilities are easily visible as well.

FIGS. 13A-B relate to attraction ranking, within a simplified exemplaryattraction database 150 (FIG. 2) of four attractions. FIG. 13A describesthe forum member's interests (again, in the scale 0-9 where ‘0 ’ showsdisinterest) in the attractions, while FIG. 13B shows the mutualinterest of our exemplary kernel subscriber, Mary, and each of the otherforum members, in each attraction. Thus, for example, the highest mutualattraction ranking is visiting Andy's café with Jim or Rachel, whilePaul can be a companion only for the movie “Fantasia” or Andy's café.

It will be noted that both FIG. 12B and FIG. 13B employ a specificsimplified formula (similar to that of FIG. 11B) to calculate mutualinterest from individual interests, and many other formulas can beemployed as well, as determined by doctrine & rules 171 of FIG. 2. Itwill be also noted that the interdependent scoring scheme demonstratedin FIG. 4E, wherein ranking and/or timing can be dependent on theselected partner, are not included in the present examples althoughtables 12B and 13B can easily tolerate timing and ranking that areinterdependent with scoring.

FIG. 14A describes a table that consolidates the results of FIGS. 11B,12B and 13B, for easing the explanation of the sorting mechanism of step370 of FIG. 10. It will be emphasized that the current discussion coversthe viewpoint of Mary, a kernel subscriber randomly picked in step 354of FIG. 10. FIG. 14B demonstrates this sorting mechanism by showing howthe policy of our kernel subscriber, Mary, affects actual encountergeneration by encounter generator 110. Six policy variations #1-6 aredescribed according to the ordering permutations among scoring, rankingand timing. Thus, by prioritizing scoring-timing-ranking (variation #1)Mary & John score highest (14), the preferred mutual timing for them isTuesday (13), and their mutually-preferred attraction is Garden Café(13) leading encounter generator 110 to generate an encounter thatcombines these three choices. Swapping the priorities of timing andranking (variation #2) does not change the encounter specifics in thiscase. Variations #3-6 further demonstrate how the policy has affectsencounter generation as derived from the table of FIG. 14A.

It will be noted that secondary priorities within the policy (i.e. thecontent of 2nd and 3rd elements) may affect the end results in two ways:when two 1st-priority items have identical points, then the selectioncan be determined by a secondary element; and when there is aninterdependency between timing, ranking and/or scoring (e.g. Garden Caféis closed on Tuesdays). Another point to notice is that the presentexemplary doctrine of FIG. 10, of picking kernel subscribers, fairlytakes into account the scoring, ranking and timing of the othersubscribers through selecting mutual criteria, but ignores theirpolicies. It will also be noted that the ensembles demonstrated abovewere of two subscribers, but similar mechanisms can also be used toarrange group encounters, for example by selecting a kernel subscriberand then identifying all group combinations that include the kernelsubscriber, and weigh-in the mutual scoring, ranking and timing for eachcombination, to derive the best combination for an encounter with thekernel subscriber.

It will be noted that scoring and ranking, that have been measured abovein the scale of 0-9, can be measured in many alternative ways, e.g.scale 0-3 or using normumeric terms such as ‘dislike’, ‘neutral’,‘like’, ‘like very much’ (normumeric terms may be translated byprocessor 160 to numeric values to ease calculations). In the extremecase, scoring and/or ranking can be measured in a binary scale of ‘0 ’or ‘1 ’, which imply ‘disinterested’ or ‘interested’.

Partial Wish-Lists

A wish-list is complete if it includes, for every participant, his, heror their scores, ranks, timing, policy and miscellaneous preferences.However, embodiments or operational instances of the present inventioncan function well even with incomplete wish-lists, where the missingelements are either derived from default values or call for negotiationsamong picked ensemble members.

Scoring can be eliminated from some embodiments or specific sessions ofthe present invention. A first example is a closed forum of friends orbusiness associates who want to meet each other systematically and callthe system of the present invention to facilitate the attractionselection and schedule coordination. A second example is where a seriesof introductory meetings among groups of strangers are devised toacquaint friend seekers or mate seekers with each other, while stillbeing responsive to their timing and ranking.

Ranking can be eliminated from some embodiments or specific sessions ofthe present invention. For example, a forum may be assembled in order tovisit a prescribed session of theater shows or lectures, leaving thecoordination of schedules and ensembles to an embodiment of the presentinvention. In embodiments or events in a forum of friend seekers or mateseekers, some or all attractions may be made mandatory by the organizerthus voiding their ranking.

Timing can be eliminated from some embodiments or specific sessions ofthe present invention. For example, a forum can be assembled forattending an art lecture every Tuesday evening, while participants canstill call an embodiment of the present invention to assist them inselecting with whom they want to go and to what specific lecture. In thecase of friend seekers and mate seekers, meetings can be prescheduled.In other embodiments, the schedule is implicit within the attractionspecification (e.g. a unique concert) and timing thus becomes redundant.In another embodiment, subscribers who are matched to a specificattraction by scoring and ranking, are advised to call each other tocoordinate the schedule.

Policy can be eliminated from some embodiments or specific sessions ofthe present invention. For example, the policy can be implicit in theforum goals. Thus, a forum of entertainment seekers can adopt a uniformpolicy for all its members, e.g. outings once a week, ranking first,timing second, and scoring third. A forum of friend seekers or mateseekers can define a default policy of scoring first and ranking second,while timing is eliminated altogether by the meetings beingprescheduled.

Miscellaneous preferences come to facilitate reservation andcoordination and can be eliminated in many embodiments or instances ofthe present invention.

Another type of partial information within a wish-list is whenattractions are specified only partially, leaving details to bedecided-upon among the ensemble members. For instance, if an attractionis specified just as ‘a restaurant’ or ‘a movie’, or even as ‘Italianrestaurant’ or ‘a comedy’, the ensemble members then remain with theburden of discussing and negotiating the specifics. The advantage,however, is that attractions that are described in general terms arestatistically much easier to match with others, and then subscribers canbenefit from many more outings than in the case that attractions arevery narrowly and precisely specified.

Offering Multiple Choices

In some embodiments or operational instances of the present invention,subscribers are called to make choices. For example, when an attractionis only partially-specified, when wish-lists are only partly filled, orwhen wish-lists fail to perfectly-match.

However, in some embodiments a choice is optionally offered when thesystem identifies more than one possible match among wish lists,introducing flexibility into encounter generation, which may affect anyor all acts of picking an ensemble, assigning an attraction andselecting a schedule. For instance, encounter generator 110 may identifythat the wish list of a certain subscriber allows picking thatsubscriber for a first group visiting a certain movie on Monday, oranother group visiting another movie on Wednesday; optionally, thatsubscriber can be offered, by a message from encounter generator 110, tomake a choice, which will be part of finalizing the ensemble pickingoperation. Similarly, a picked ensemble can be found, by the wish-listsof its members, suitable for meeting both at a certain movie on Mondayor at a certain theater show on Wednesday, leaving the choice to beeither decided arbitrarily by encounter generator 110 according to apredefined doctrine, determined by the ensemble members' votes calledfor and received and processed by encounter generator 110, or left to bedecided upon by direct communication among the ensemble's members.

Accordingly, in embodiments that support multiple choices, the terms“picking an ensemble”, “assigning an attraction” and “selecting aschedule” gain some flexibility, in the sense that multiple choices maybe presented to subscribers, to be decided either individually, byvoting, or by direct communication.

Integration with Existing Social Networking and Ticketing Services

There are at least two families of Internet and mobile businesses thatare suitable as a basis for implementation of the present invention,after making the appropriate adaptations and enhancements. The firstbusiness family is social networking sites specializing in connectingpeople to each other. The second family is ticketing sites specializingin managing reservations and selling tickets for a variety of leisure &entertainment attractions.

FIG. 15 describes an exemplary preferred embodiment 400, where thefunctionalities of encounter generator 110 of FIGS. 1-2 are spread overan encounter generator server 110S, one or more social networkingservers 122 and one or more attraction agency servers 123A. Withreference also to FIG. 2, encounter generator server 110S includesprocessor 160 and encounter program 165 for generating attractions fromattraction database 150 that is actually hosted on, or mirrored from,attraction agency servers 123A that in turn are continually fed withupdated data from attraction provider terminals/servers 123P. Anattraction terminal 123P can be, for example, just a personal computerused by a smaller attraction operator (e.g. a restaurant or bar owner)to enter attractions manually through a Web browser; an attractionserver 123P can be used by a larger attraction operator, e.g. a movietheater chain, for maintaining. The encounters are generated byencounter generator server 110S for subscribers listed in one or moresocial networking servers 122, which maintains communication with therespective subscribers through user terminals 120. Thus, subscriberdatabase 140 preferably mostly resides, in the embodiment 400 underdiscussion, within the respective social networking server 122, whilethe respective wish-lists preferably reside in and are maintained andprocessed by encounter generator server 110S.

The embodiment 400 of FIG. 15 teaches how the present invention canexpand and enrich the services of existing businesses in the socialnetworking arena who operate social networking servers 122, and existingbusinesses in the arena of ticketing who operate attraction agencyservers 123A, by providing encounter generator server 110S to bridgebetween them, and equipping them with the appropriate interfaces andcomplementary functionalities. The connecting lines are preferablyembodied using the Internet and/or a mobile network as a communicationchannel. Thus members of a social networking server 122 can be offered,on their regular Web page, to join the service of the present invention.When a subscriber selects to join, then based on the subscriber'sprofile, the subscriber is assigned to a forum (possibly a circle) bysocial networking server 122, which is reported to encounter generator110S. The subscriber is then presented with a list of attraction offersrelayed to the subscriber's viewed Web page from encounter generatorserver 110S, which selects for presentation the attractions relevant tothe subscriber (e.g. by geographic location and age) received fromattraction agency servers 123A. When appropriate, the subscriber ofserver 122 is also presented with a list of appropriate members fromhis/her/their forum, as discussed above. Then the subscriber is invitedto fill-in his, her or their wish-list, that is actually maintained inserver 1105. Once encounter generator server 1105 has generated anencounter, seat availability is confirmed and seats are tentativelyreserved by encounter generator server 1105 through attraction agencyservers 123A, and the encounter is offered to the participatingsubscribers of the appropriate social networking server 122 through amessage to their user terminals 120. In the message the subscriberspreferably find a link, which hooks them directly to the respectiveattraction agency servers 123A, for completing the booking, includingpayment therefor, where appropriate.

FIG. 16 describes an alternative exemplary embodiment 410, where thefunctionalities of encounter generator 110 are implemented within anattraction agency server 123X by adding to it an encounter generatorapplication 110X and social networking application 122X. Thus,attraction agency server 123X runs application 123X′ to undertakeconventional booking functionalities with attraction operators throughtheir terminals/servers 123P, as well as social networkingfunctionalities 122X (e.g. membership registration, profiles)cooperative with user terminals 120. Thus, a visitor to the respectiveagency Web site is offered a new subscription service that allows him,her or them to coordinate outings with existing friends, meet newfriends or seek a soul mate according to the teachings of the presentinvention.

Cooperation with Dating Services

FIG. 17 echoes FIG. 15, further adapted to a specific exemplaryembodiment 420 for mate seekers. Thus, the subscribers who use userterminals 120 are singles, and the associated social networking servicesare actually Internet (or mobile) dating services that operate datingservers 122D. The other blocks are as described with respect to FIG. 15.

FIG. 18 summarizes a preferred operation method of the embodiment ofFIG. 17, with reference to a selected dating service operating one ofthe dating servers 122D. In a step 442 users use their user terminals120 to subscribe with their selected dating service through therespective dating server 122D, and fill-in their profile. In a step 444a closed forum of compatible users is derived by the dating service, ora circle is derived for each user, either manually by commonsense, or byusing profile-matching techniques that are beyond the scope of thepresent invention, and the forum members are reported, at least by aunique identification of each, to encounter generator server 110S, alongwith the profile of the forum (e.g. age range, geography, specialinterests). In a step 446, attraction agency server 123A sends toencounter generator server 110S attractions received from attractionprovider terminals/servers 123P, and encounter generator server 110Sextracts from these attractions those relevant to the forum, derived bythe forum profile (e.g. age range, geography, special interests) and bytheir time relevancy, and the extracted attractions are then forwardedto the respective user terminals 120 through the respective datingservice server 122D. In a step 448, the members of the forum, alreadypresented with the available attractions in step 446, use their userterminals 120 to fill-in their wish-lists, to specify their scoring,ranking, timing, policies and miscellaneous preferences, all immediatelyrelayed through dating server 122D to encounter generator server 110S.In a step 450, when all wish-lists of the forum members are received, orwhen a specified deadline is reached, encounter generator server 110Sassigns encounters to ensembles whose wish-lists have matched, makestentative reservations at the respective attractions through therespective attraction agency servers 123A, and offers the attractions tothe ensembles' members by sending messages to their user terminals 120through the respective dating server 112D. In a step 452, the usersapprove their participation in the encounters assigned to them, andcomplete booking, including payment. Step 452 often takes place throughvisibly or invisibly relaying the user to the respective attractionagency server 123A for completing the payment and ticketing transaction,while keeping dating server 122D and encounter generator server 110Sinformed. In a step 454 the encounter is executed, i.e. the subscribersof each of the picked ensembles meet and enjoy their mutual time at theassigned attraction. Following such encounters, the process loops backto step 446, to allow selecting new attractions and modifying thewish-lists toward the next session of encounters.

It will be appreciated that under the operation described in FIG. 18with respect to the dating embodiment of FIG. 17, the user experience atuser terminal 120 is as if the stages of subscription, wish-listfill-in, encounter offers and booking, are all carried out at one screenon their user terminal 120. Thus, all the messages and transactions thatrun on or are relayed by encounter generator server 110S and attractionagency server 123A are behind the scene and are transparent to the user.Also, it will be noted that the dating service that runs server 122Ddoes not need to share its user database with encounter generator server110S, since it is sufficient that dating server 122S shares withencounter generator server 110S only unique user identifications (e.g.by a serial number), some basic profile details (e.g. sex) and themembership of forums/circles. Then, encounter generator server 110Sexclusively manages the wish-list and history log of all subscribers forgenerating encounters. This aspect is commercially important for datingservices when encounter generator server 1105 is run by another businessentity that that of the dating server 122D. In addition, it will benoted that monetary transactions in step 452 are preferably channeled tobe executed directly between the user and the agency server 123A, tomake the system more efficient and secure as credit card numbers do notneed to be divulged to additional parties except the buyer and theseller.

Exemplary Doctrines for Singles

FIGS. 19A-C schematically illustrate three exemplary modes of operationof the dating embodiment of FIG. 17, which differ by the way a forum isderived and the game rules. The three doctrines represented by FIGS.19A-C offer different social and psychological merits, and can be chosenby a dating service, or be offered for the choice of the participants.

FIG. 19A describes the operation of a closed forum, and is similar tothe operation described with respect to FIG. 18. Thus, in a step 501 aclosed forum of, for example, 15 women and 15 men, is derived by thedating service. In a step 503 a series of short introductory meetings isrun to introduce all men to all women in the forum, disallowing orignoring scoring at this stage. In a step 505 a series of primary groupencounters, in small groups of preferably 3-6 subscribers, is run tobetter acquaint the members to each other and ignite mutual interestamong individuals. Those who develop mutual interest or just feelcomfortable with each other and express their willingness to meet on aone-on-one basis in their wish-lists (see blocks 145S and 145C of FIG.3), move to couple encounters 507. After a predefined number ofencounters, and/or a period of time, and/or when the scoring stabilizesacross the forum, the forum is concluded in a step 509, with somemembers becoming couples, some others getting closer and are offered tomove together to a fresh forum, and the rest are offered another trywith new acquaintances.

FIG. 19B describes an alternative mode of operation of revolving groupsof four, until a match is found and a couple is established. The crux ofthe present embodiment is that each participant will meet one of thepresent others of the opposite sex in the next group meeting, until heor she identifies (and is mutually identified by) a partner for couplemeetings. In a step 521 the dating service derives a circle of prospectsfor each forum member. For example, for a specific male member who is 30years old, all women who are in 25-30 age range, have a similar level ofeducation and live within 10 miles from that man, constitute that man'scircle. It will be noted that circles vary in their size, which canrange from a few prospects to hundreds of them. The circle is preferablyderived by the dating service that operates dating server 122D, whichhas the full profile of all subscribers, and the unique identifiers ofall circle members for each subscriber, including the circlecharacteristics, are reported to the encounter generator server 110S formanaging the encounters. Steps 523-537 below will be described from theviewpoint of a selected kernel subscriber, that has been just pickedrandomly by encounter generator server 110S. In a step 523 encountergenerator server 110S is called to select three other subscribers for agroup encounter. Two subscribers of the opposite sex of the kernelsubscriber are randomly selected from that subscriber's circle, andanother subscriber of the same sex as the kernel subscriber is selectedfrom the intersection of the circles of the selected two of the oppositesex. Now a compatible group of two men and two women has been formed. Ina step 525, encounter generator server 110S matches an attraction andtiming and a group encounter is arranged and executed by the foursubscribers. Following the encounter, the participants are invited toupdate their wish-lists, which is received in a step 527 by encountergenerator server 110S. The scores, in the embodiment of FIG. 19B, do notallow absolute exclusion of any partner (i.e. score ‘0 ’), but acceptsrelative liking, as well as an indication whether the scored participantis desired for a couple meeting. In a step 529 encounter generatorserver 110S processes the wish-lists from step 527 and divides the groupinto two pairs according to predefined “best match” criteria; if suchcriteria exactly balance, then encounter generator server 110S selectsthe two pairs randomly. Focusing back on the kernel subscriber, in astep 531 encounter generator server 110S checks whether the kernelsubscriber and his/her partner have mutually scored each other for acouple encounter (see for example block 145C of FIG. 3). If the answeris positive, then in a step 533 encounter generator server 110S arrangesa couple encounter for that pair, and through step 535 it arrangesadditional couple encounters for same pair until they either decide toretire as a couple (not shown) or separate (by a score of ‘0 ’ of atleast one of them) and then the kernel subscriber is selected foranother new group of four in step 523. If in step 531 there was nocouple selection, then in a step 537 the kernel subscriber and the otherparty of the pair become part of a new group of four and are invited toanother group encounter in step 525.

The mode of operation of FIG. 19C starts similarly to that of FIG. 19B,in a circle derived for each member of a dating service by the datingservice and reported to encounter generator server 110S. In a step 553,a group of four compatible subscribers is selected, similarly to step523 of FIG. 19B. In a step 555 a group encounter is arranged byencounter generator server 110S and is executed by the group. In a step557 the participants, under the impressions from their group encounter,submit their wish-lists to encounter generator server 1105. If twoparticipants identified in their mutual scores sufficient liking formeeting as a couple, then they are assigned a couple encounter in a step561, after which, through examining the updated wish-lists, are eithersent in a step 563 by encounter generator server 1105 for another coupleencounter, or are separated and get another opportunity in a groupmeeting in step 553. If one failed to obtain a partner in step 561, heor she is referred for another new group meeting in step 553.

The operational modes of FIGS. 19A-C differ by the level that theydemand getting to know each other before establishing an opinion anddeveloping interest. Those who believe in getting and giving a secondlook will prefer the mode of FIG. 19A, while those who believe that theywill find their desired mate only by screening hundreds of prospectswill prefer the mode of FIG. 19C. It is the discretion of the datingservice which modes of operation are worth offering to its subscribers,or a choice of subscribers which mode of operation they prefer.Sometimes, however, a subscriber who prefers massive screening may learnthat the type of personality he is seeking for his soul mate prefersclosed forum encounters, and may adapt his preferences accordingly.

Meetings at Commercial Attractions

FIG. 20 summarizes the operation of the present invention for offeringcommercial attractions as a motive or facility for social meetings. Theprocedure of FIG. 20 presumes that subscribers have already registeredwith a community of the present invention and that each subscriber hasalready been identified with other subscribers that can be selected foran encounter with that subscriber (i.e. forums/circles have been alreadyformed within the community, as appropriate), and has also enteredhis/her/their policy, or that such policy has been mandated by thecommunity. The description below refers also to FIGS. 1-2.

In a step 600, encounter generator 110 receives offers for commercialattractions from one or more commercial attraction provider servers 123.In a step 602, encounter generator 110 receive subscribers' wish-listsby communicating with the respective subscriber terminals 120. Step 602is composed of three sub-steps: in a step 602R, subscribers arepresented with attraction offers, preferably narrowed to relevantattractions only (relevancy determined, for example, by age, geography,and possibly fields of interest included in the subscriber's profile;presenting only relevant attractions is an optional convenience feature,to ease selection) and rank their interest in these attractions. In astep 602S each subscriber is presented with a list of relevant othersubscribers, for example from his or her closed forum of from his or hercircle, and scores his or her interest in meeting them. In the case ofmate seekers the relevant other subscribers are individuals of theselected gender, while in other cases they can be men, women, couples orfamilies, as explained above. As already explained, scoring and rankingcan optionally be allowed to be interdependent so that one may rank highpreference for a movie with one prospect and high preference for aconcert with another. In a step 602T each subscriber fills-in his or hertiming with respect to preferred schedules for outings. It will be notedthat while often a wish-list 602 includes all three of ranking 602R,scoring 602S and timing 602T, it is also possible that only one or twoout of the three are required or entered, where the missing factor beingdefined by a default value or left for being negotiated among theselected parties (for example, when scoring and ranking has selected twosubscribers for a specific movie, and they are left with the decision onwhen to go out for that movie). Also, if an attraction is specified ingeneral terms (for example, just ‘a movie’ or ‘a restaurant’), it isexpected that the particulars will be agreed upon among the attractionvisitors.

After encounter generator 110 has received in step 602 the wish-lists ofcommunity members, in a step 604 it processes those wish-lists forgenerating an encounter by the methods described above. The encountergeneration 604 includes picking an ensemble of subscribers 604E,assigning an attraction 604A, and selecting a schedule 604S. Thepriority among picking an ensemble, assigning an attraction andselecting a schedule may be a matter of subscribers' policy (see forexample FIG. 14B). While in many cases, picking 604E is decided bymatching high mutual scores 602S, in some other cases it can be decidedby mutual ranks 602R or by mutual timing 602T (for example, within aforum of friends who decide to adopt a policy of picking ensembles onthe basis of mutual interest in attractions or on calendar availability,while being tolerant regarding the companions). Similarly, the assignedattraction 604 is preferably selected on the basis of mutual ranking602R of the ensemble's members, but can alternatively be picked randomlyor systematically within a predefined list of attraction, for examplewithin a forum that decides to systematically visit old movies or allrestaurants in China Town. In some cases, an encounter generated at step604 includes all three of ensemble, attraction and schedule; in someother cases (if supported by the doctrine and rules 171 for the instantcommunity) an attraction or schedule may be missing and left fornegotiation among the ensemble members, for example when thecorresponding data from the respective wish-lists 602 are missing orwhere such data fail to match (e.g. one wishes to go out on Tuesdaywhile the designated partner prefers Wednesday).

In a step 608 the encounters generated in step 604 are presented to thepicked subscribers by communicating with their respective terminals 120,e.g. by an email or SMS message. Preferably, the subscribers arerequested to confirm the receipt of the message and their participation.In some cases mentioned above, the subscribers are encouraged tocommunicate with each other in order to finalize some missing orincomplete details such as attraction specifics or schedule.

In an optional step 610, the picked subscribers who have been presentedwith their encounter in step 608, are offered on their terminal 120 anoption to complete booking, which is executed either through encountergenerator 610, or by the subscriber terminal 120 being directed byencounter generator 160 (e.g. by providing a link) to the respectiveattraction server 123 so that the commercial transaction, as well ashandling the associated confidential credit card data and the associatedcommercial liabilities, are managed directly between the subscriber (thebuyer) and the respective attraction provider (the seller). The choicebetween reservations and ticketing depends on the nature of the selectedcommercial attraction. For example, a restaurant will usually requirereservation, a movie may require ticketing, and some theaters may alloweither direct ticketing or a reservation completed by ticketing at thetheater gate.

The process of steps 604-608 or 604-610 repeats for generatingencounters for as many subscribers as possible from those who haveprovided their wish-list in step 602 and can be matched with others foran encounter. However, some subscribers who have provided theirwish-lists in step 602 may be left without an encounter since encountergenerator 110 could not match them with other subscribers on the basisof mutual scoring, ranking and timing. As mentioned above, in someembodiments, partial matches (when either the schedule or the attractioncannot be matched) among subscribers who have positively scored eachother, can be still presented in step 608 for negotiations among thepicked subscribers (‘among’ includes ‘between’ for a case of twosubscribers).

The full process of FIG. 20 (steps 600-608 or 600-610) is repeatedperiodically to generate encounters for next specified periods, e.g. forthe next week.

SUMMARY

The present invention facilitates outings with friends and providesunique opportunities for making new friends and finding a soul mate. Iteases coordination of schedules and attraction preferences anddiscretely mediates the private preferences of people with respect tomeeting each other.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the artthat the present invention is not limited by what has been particularlyshown and described herein. Rather the scope of the present inventionincludes both combinations and sub-combinations of the various featuresdescribed herein, as well as variations and modifications which wouldoccur to persons skilled in the art upon reading the specification andwhich are not in the prior art.

1. A method for operating a computerized encounter generator forarranging, for a plurality of subscribers, face-to-face meetings at aplurality of attractions, the method comprising: receiving preferencesof each participating subscriber of a plurality of participatingsubscribers, said preferences of the participating subscriber includingat least the following three interests: the participating subscriber'sscore expressing the participating subscriber's relative level ofinterest in each selected subscriber of a plurality of selectedsubscribers, each selected subscriber individually-identified among theplurality of subscribers by the participating subscriber, theparticipating subscriber's ranking expressing the participatingsubscriber's relative level of interest in each selected attraction of aplurality of selected attractions from the plurality of attractions, andthe participating subscriber's timing specifying the participatingsubscriber's interest in preferred schedules for meetings; andgenerating an encounter, by a processor of the encounter generator, saidgenerating including: picking, from the plurality of participatingsubscribers, in response to said three interests included in thepreferences received from the plurality of participating subscribers, anensemble of subscribers that consists of at least two participatingsubscribers and less than the plurality of participating subscribers,and assigning to said ensemble, in response to said three interestsincluded in the preferences received from the plurality of participatingsubscribers, an assigned attraction from the plurality of attractions.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: communicating with asocial networking server for said receiving preferences.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: communicating with a subscriber terminalof each participating subscriber of said plurality of participatingsubscribers, for said receiving preferences.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the participating subscriber's interest in each attraction isselectably definable by the participating subscriber per each subscriberof the plurality of subscribers.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein saidplurality of attractions includes commercial attractions, the methodfurther comprising: communicating with at least one commercialattraction provider server and receiving commercial attractions fromsaid at least one commercial attraction provider server.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein said plurality of attractions includes commercialattractions, the method further comprising: communicating with acommercial attraction provider server and booking said selectedattraction for said ensemble at said commercial attraction providerserver.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said selected attraction ispartly specified, thereby requiring attraction particulars to benegotiated by the ensemble's subscribers.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein at least one of the participating subscriber's interest in eachsubscriber or the participating subscriber's interest in eachattraction, is measured within a scale that includes at least one valuethat is other than disapproval.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein saidensemble consists of two participating subscribers.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said ensemble consists of two participating subscribersonly if said preferences received from each of said two participatingsubscribers indicate a positive interest for meeting the other of saidtwo participating subscribers in a couple setting, otherwise saidensemble consists of more than two participating subscribers.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said ensemble consists of more than twoparticipating subscribers.
 12. An encounter generator for arranging, fora plurality of subscribers, face-to-face meetings at a plurality ofattractions, the encounter generator comprising: a subscriber databaseincluding, for each participating subscriber of a plurality ofparticipating subscribers, preferences of the participating subscriberthat include at least the following three interests: the participatingsubscriber's score expressing the participating subscriber's relativelevel of interest in each selected subscriber of a plurality of selectedsubscribers, each selected subscriber individually-identified among theplurality of subscribers by the participating subscriber, theparticipating subscriber's ranking expressing the participatingsubscriber's relative level of interest in each selected attraction of aplurality of selected attractions from the plurality of attractions, andthe participating subscriber's timing specifying the participatingsubscriber's interest in preferred schedules for meetings; and aprocessor configured to generate an encounter, said generate including:picking, from the plurality of participating subscribers, in response tosaid three interests included in the preferences of the plurality ofparticipating subscribers, an ensemble that consists of at least twoparticipating subscribers and less than the plurality of participatingsubscribers, and assigning an assigned attraction from the plurality ofattractions to said ensemble, in response to said three interestsincluded in the preferences of the plurality of participatingsubscribers.
 13. The encounter generator of claim 12, furthercomprising: an interface for communicating with a social networkingserver for receiving said preferences.
 14. The encounter generator ofclaim 12, further comprising: an interface for communicating with asubscriber terminal of each said participating subscriber for receivingsaid preferences.
 15. The encounter generator of claim 12, wherein saidplurality of attractions includes commercial attractions, the encountergenerator further comprising: an interface for at least one of:communicating with at least one commercial attraction provider serverand receiving said commercial attractions; or communicating with acommercial attraction provider server and booking said assignedattraction for said ensemble.
 16. A method for operating at least onesocial networking server for arranging, for a plurality of subscribers,face-to-face meetings at a plurality of attractions, the methodcomprising: communicating with a subscriber terminal of eachparticipating subscriber of a plurality of participating subscribers andreceiving the participating subscriber's preferences that include atleast the following three interests: the participating subscriber'sscore expressing the participating subscriber's relative level ofinterest in each selected subscriber of a plurality of selectedsubscribers, each selected subscriber individually-identified among theplurality of subscribers by the participating subscriber, theparticipating subscriber's ranking expressing the participatingsubscriber's relative level of interest in each selected attraction of aplurality of selected attractions from the plurality of attractions, andthe participating subscriber's timing specifying the participatingsubscriber's interest in preferred schedules for meetings; andcommunicating with a subscriber terminal of each selected subscriber ofan ensemble of subscribers and presenting an encounter, wherein: saidensemble of subscribers consists of at least two participatingsubscribers and less than the plurality of participating subscribers,and has been picked from the plurality of participating subscribers inresponse to said three interests included in the preferences receivedfrom the plurality of participating subscribers, and said encounterdefines at least said ensemble and an assigned attraction that has beenassigned to said ensemble in response to said three interests includedin the preferences received from the plurality of participatingsubscribers.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein said plurality ofattractions includes commercial attractions, the method furthercomprising at least one of: communicating with at least one commercialattraction provider server and receiving said commercial attractions; orcommunicating with a commercial attraction provider server and bookingsaid assigned attraction for said ensemble.
 18. The method of claim 16,wherein said ensemble consists of two participating subscribers.